


Small Kindness

by withinmelove



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Gen, Mental Instability, Mental Institutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 11:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21207875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withinmelove/pseuds/withinmelove
Summary: James has introspective moments visiting the facility where mentally unstable agents are put when they are retired or unable to fit into civilian life again.





	Small Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> I was writing this while watching Skyfall and thinking to myself what does MI6 do with agents that are too fucked up by their work? Who are unable to return to a civilian life after their service. This is under 400 words but it's really nice to put **something** out after a 5 month break. If I can convince my motivation next will be a sex pollen fic with James/Q.

Bond has never been quite sure why it takes two kills to become a double-0 agent. Well, the preliminary to become one anyway. There’s far more to being a double-0 agent then just being able to wield a variety of weapons. Any terrorist can do that. Honestly, a street thug could do as much.

The first time an agent kills to start the climb to double-0 status, they are often still riding the high of emotion. Terror, disgust, elation--dare he admit, power? The adrenaline can numb the first experience of murder for money and country. It takes that second go-around of blood on their hands to find out if their psyche will bend or break.

James discovers his mind merely warps. A rather good outcome overall, he thinks. No need to send off another unhinged would-be agent to an isolated life in a top government facility. Perhaps out of morbid curiosity, James had gone to visit one, once. 

A lie he likes to tell himself. 

Truth be told, James finds he can’t resist coming back. Something about the people here pulls at his heartstrings in a way he’d long thought impossible. He’d cut out those very heartstrings within himself after Vesper. But this place and what it’s meant for has an unexplainable pull on him. 

He’s returned many times to this locked and guarded area. It’s quite easy to. Only a simple facial recognition scan at the gates to show he is an agent of MI6 is needed to be allowed in. Perhaps the attendants think him deranged for stopping by so frequently. Since this place is used to lock away unstable agents for the rest of their lives. 

The severity of trauma depends on the person, from what James can tell. There’s a young woman here sweetly friendly and talkative, but it takes only a moment's topic change for her to start weeping. Poor thing is self-aware enough to know she’ll never leave this place, alive or dead. On the extreme end are those who have become catatonic or physically violent. Others cannot escape the flashbacks and night terrors that haunt them.

Strangely, James finds it soothing to know there will be a place for him should he lose his marbles completely. A guarantee that not one soul will come to check in on him. But then again, he’s never done anything to deserve that sort of kindness.

**Author's Note:**

> My beta Sable was nice enough to put commas in this tiny ficlet I wrote on a whim after watching the James Bond movie Skyfall.  
Here's her ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirsable  
She writes lots of Stucky!
> 
> Critiques, comments and kudos are appreciated! I love the feedback.


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